I just finished my carbon footprint, and about half of it was from travel, most of which was from flying. I only take two trips a year, which is four flights in total. I feel like the carbon footprint doesn't take into account how many people are actually being moved on one flight, but rather shows you how much carbon is released from the flight overall, as opposed to dividing up the emissions evenly among all the passengers. Am I wrong in thinking this?

No, I agree. Even without you on it, the plane will fly, and release carbon like normal. The only difference that you would make is just a few pounds more for the plane to carry, and likewise have to use a little bit more fuel.

the thing is planes may pollute a lot but how would they compare to every body on the plane driving that distance. even, if they car pooled 2 people per car and used efficient fuel i doubt it would be much better

Sure there are many being moved by the same plane, but its not talking about everyone's footprint. its focusing on yours, you wouldn't have a large portion of your carbon footprint in traveling if you hadn't gone on that trip. maybe it should take in account for the other people, because the plane still runs without you. But its trying to calculate how much you use.

I don't specifically think that airplanes are really a bad thing... yes they are not good for the environment and they can't emit large quantities of carbon in the air but transportation is key and without it we wouldn't have the benefits of life saving care and treatment and wars for our own profit. Planes help the economy  in so many ways but flat out getting rid of them would in my expertise, bring another great depression. The best and absolute problem would be to make planes more fuel efficient...

if you took a small two person plane it would use produce a lot less emissions

@jacknewt_selftest  The plane may fly without you but if everyone stopped using planes then no planes would fly and that would pollute much less

I was thinking the same thing. I've taken a couple flights, and when I put them in, my carbon footprint went from half the national average for carbon footprint to about 5 times as much as it was before. It doesn't really seem to take into account that there are so many people on the plane, and also the plane would go anyway and take up just as much fuel as if you never went on it.

yes, I'm sorry to say that you are wrong in thinking that: your flying footprint assumes the industry standard of 80% occupancy (20% of seats empty).  So we divide by that number of passengers.

I have noticed that flights seem more crowded lately, so perhaps that 80% number is too low, but this would make only a small difference to your flying footprint.

I don't think we can solve this problem by flying less, we need a new design for a plane that uses less fuel or none at all

I agree with owenhagar, I think planes are extremely important and that they help our economy.  Although they do hurt the environment, they are important.  We could possible have planes more fuel efficient.

eric b- you can use the footprint calculator to answer your question.  I think you will find that driving the same distance as flying has a lower footprint, even when driving alone!